GALESBURG, Ill. - Caisha Gayles graduated with honors last month, but she is still waiting for her diploma. The reason: the whoops of joy from the audience as she crossed the stage.

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Gayles was one of five students denied diplomas from the lone public high school in Galesburg after enthusiastic friends or family members cheered for them during commencement.

About a month before the May 27 ceremony, Galesburg High students and their parents had to sign a contract promising to act in dignified way. Violators were warned they could be denied their diplomas and barred from the after-graduation party.

Many schools across the country ask spectators to hold applause and cheers until the end of graduation. But few of them enforce the policy with what some in Galesburg say are strong-arm tactics.

"It was like one of the worst days of my life," said Gayles, who had a 3.4 grade-point average and officially graduated, but does not have the keepsake diploma to hang on her wall. "You walk across the stage and then you can't get your diploma because of other people cheering for you. It was devastating, actually."

School officials in Galesburg, a working-class town of 34,000 that is still reeling from the 2004 shutdown of a 1,600-employee refrigerator factory, said the get-tough policy followed a 2005 commencement where hoots, hollers and even air horns drowned out much of the ceremony and nearly touched off fights in the audience when the unruly were asked to quiet down.

"Lots of parents complained that they could not hear their own child's name called," said Joel Estes, Galesburg's assistant superintendent. "And I think that led us to saying we have to do something about this to restore some dignity and honor to the ceremony so that everyone can appreciate it and enjoy it."

In Indianapolis, public school officials this year started kicking out parents and relatives who cheer. At one school, the superintendent interrupted last month's graduation to order police to remove a woman from the gymnasium.

"It's an important, solemn occasion. There's plenty of time for celebration before and after," said Clarke Campbell, president of the Indianapolis school board.

In Galesburg, the issue has taken on added controversy with accusations that the students were targeted because of their race: four are black and one is Hispanic. Parents say cheers also erupted for white students, and none of them was denied a diploma.

Principal Tom Chiles said administrators who monitored the more than 2,000-seat auditorium reported only disruptions they considered "significant," and all turned in the same five names.

"Race had absolutely nothing to do with it whatsoever," Chiles said. "It is the amount of disruption at the time of the incident."

School officials said they will hear students and parents out if they appeal. Meanwhile, the school said the five students can still get their diplomas by completing eight hours of public service work, answering phones, sorting books or doing other chores for the district, situated about 150 miles southwest of Chicago.

Gayles' mother said she plans to fight the school board ? in court if necessary ? to get her daughter's diploma. The noise "was like three seconds. It was like, `Yay,' and that was it," Carolyn Gayles said.

American Civil Liberties Union spokesman Edward Yohnka said Galesburg's policy raises no red flags as long as it is enforced equitably. "It's probably well within the school's ability to control the decorum at an event like this," he said.

Another student who was denied her diploma, Nadia Trent, said she will probably let the school keep it if her appeals fail.

"It's not fair. Somebody could not like me and just decide to yell to get me in trouble. I can't control everyone, just the ones I gave tickets to," Trent said.

Well It seems the majority of parents want the applaud to wait till the end. That's pretty weak to take away the students diploma just because their parents have no self control. It's also sad though you can't even have a ceremony without someone screw it up. It's not difficult to follow these simple rules.

What the hell is wrong with applauding someone for Graduating college... that's what you're meant to do!!

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The principle for making up such a rediculous rule. Graduation is a time of change, when a person goes out into the world on their own. They're supposed to go with pride, not with shame. The ceremony isn't a place in which you can control how much people applaud or cheer. Trying to make them not cheer is like trying to make them not to boo in a game.

The ceremony isn't a place in which you can control how much people applaud or cheer. Trying to make them not cheer is like trying to make them not to boo in a game.

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Are you serious? so when murders become common we should just except it because stopping it is impossible? At first I can see school allowing a few cheer here and there, because yes parents get excited but when no one can hear what's going on,not knowing whether its a graduation ceremony or the Stanley cup play off games well...I say someone took it a little far.

It shouldn't have to be the school to discipline the adults, they get complaints, what are they suppose to do.

"Sorry we wouldn't want to infringe on peoples rights to be assholes, it's in the constitution or whatever document they seem to hide behind."

So this is how you show the next generation what "mature" and "adult" behavior looks like? Somebody needs to ground these clowns, and give these graduates what they devoted years of their lives to earn.

Also.. Can someone explain me, why a graduation person is responsible for others behavior.
I learned in the school, I didn't do anything wrong, give me my diploma. Why the hell I suffer, because of someone's cheering, even if it's my family.

Really.. As much as US is a free country, there is such ridiculous stuff..

the school said the five students can still get their diplomas by completing eight hours of public service work, answering phones, sorting books or doing other chores for the district, situated about 150 miles southwest of Chicago.

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That's the biggest insult of all. Even disregarding the fact that the parents' noise was brief and hardly worth going crazy about, the students themselves didn't do anything wrong. Why should they be punished at all? Acting like children and withholding their diploma from them on a technicality is bad enough, but community service? Whoever thinks that's even vaguely justified needs some form of brain surgery.

That's without mentioning the fact that the contract their parents signed ruled that they act in a "dignified" way. Cheering on your child at their graduation is in no conceivable way dignified; nor should a graduation be a "solemn occasion" in the first place. It's a celebration of far too many years of education and work, and of the life ahead; it's not a funeral march.

Are you serious? so when murders become common we should just except it because stopping it is impossible?

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There is a big difference between breaking some random contract that prevents parents from being "undignified" at their child's graduation ceremony and committing murder. The former does not need to be so strictly enforced because it is an innocuous act and very easy for anyone to do (Whoops! I hollered out her name! Wtf? Do diploma?).

Well, they still have their diploma guys, just not an actual piece of paper diploma to hang up or frame or whatever.

If I were those kids, I'd just sue the district for incompetency and get my diploma, plus some money for damage and public humiliation. Any "contract" the parent's signed was most likely a very unbinding document that wouldn't hold up at all in court. And any intelligent judge could see how ridiculous it all is. It's not the students fault anyway. If someone should be doing community service, it's the parents, for breaching the "contract."

If it was really 2-3 seconds of cheering then it really is BS. There could be more to the story, but I doubt it. My school had the same rule. That's why I hate graduations--graduation is supposed to be your time, not theres. I tired of people trying to control your life when unwarranted. Those kids and parents should be given some slack. it sounds like it was hardly out of control--just the school board being assholes.